Criminal Cases Dominate In Early ’05 Court Docket

The Supreme Court already has agreed to hear 35 cases in the term beginning in October, reports Legal Times. “One thing that strikes me about this upcoming term is the high number of criminal cases,” says Georgetown University law professor Richard Lazarus. The most prominent one may be Roper v. Simmons, which tests whether the death penalty for juvenile defendants constitutes “cruel and unusual punishment” under the Eighth and 14th amendments. The Court declined to prohibit such executions in 1989, but will revisit the issue to rule on whether 16-and 17-year-old defendants may constitutionally be put to death under the “evolving standards of decency” test.

In a California case, the court will address whether the practice of segregating prisoners for the first 60 days of their incarceration violates the equal protection clause. The justices also will decide whether Congress has the power to regulate the medicinal use of homegrown marijuana. The 1996 Controlled Substances Act prohibits patients from using marijuana for medical purposes, even in states where the voters or the legislature have approved the drug’s use under a doctor’s care. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled that such marijuana usage is noncommercial and therefore outside the jurisdiction of Congress. A decision in the government’s favor would invalidate legislation in nine states that permits medicinal marijuana use.

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TCR AT A GLANCE

The award honors individuals in the media or media-related fields who have advanced national understanding on the 21st century challenges of criminal justice. It will be presented Feb 16, 2017 at a dinner at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

"Prescription opioid misuse and use of heroin and illicitly manufactured fentanyl are intertwined and deeply troubling problems," says director Tom Frieden of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. The heroin-related death total topped the number of gun homicides by 10 cases.

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The public is entitled to see virtually all Ohio police dash-cam recordings. the Ohio Supreme Court ruled 7-0, reports the Columbus Dispatch. The court rejected the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s attempt to keep all such recordings secret, even those pointed at an empty back seat or the median of an interstate highway. In its first […]